The Slytherin Ambition
by she defies gravity
Summary: They're ambitious, they're sly, they're snakes. But that isn't all they are. The students of Slytherin House are most of all people, people who have fears and desires and emotions thought to elude them. They are not what they are shown to be.


**AN: ****New oneshot, I quite like it but I also want to know what other people think so have a read and leave a review. Hope you enjoy :)**

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><p>Slytherin's have a reputation to keep. One they have upheld with their usual brand of apathy, elegance and the occasional bout of cruelty. They all hide behind masks crafted by expectations, those of their fellow students, those of their impossibly hard to please families and those of the greater wizarding world (light or dark, it doesn't seem to matter). The Slytherin society within Hogwarts is one all on its own, it's a monarchy, an aristocracy and they all have their parts to play.<p>

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><p>Draco Malfoy is not their king. As much as he would like to claim the title, he does not fit the mould – or the expectations demanded of such a leader. Sure he can boss around Crabbe and Goyle, but every Prince has to have his loyal idiots. As a Prince he has all the power in available but none of the responsibility and he loves it.<p>

He loves that he can bully Longbottom until he cries. He loves that he can walk around with Parkinson on his arm, knowing that no matter what he she always comes back. Most of all, he loves to bait Hermione Granger. She's a mudblood so why shouldn't he? And the reactions from Potty and Weasel make it all too easy.

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><p>She is not a pretty girl. Pansy Parkinson knows this. But she's a Slytherin, one of the elite, so if she wants to compete with that perfect unfair blonde Greengrass she has to adjust. So she lives by tips in Witch Weekly and she swears by the diet plan used by Celestina Warbeck – the woman must be doing something right if she looks like that. Pansy has always been one that seeks attention, she craves it, needs it. So she does whatever she can, even if that means changing every aspect of her appearance and pretending not to care when she catches <em>beloved <em>Draco with someone else.

She will do what she has to; after all, she's going to be a society wife one day. And she can accept that.

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><p>There was a wild card in Slytherin House. Theodore Nott was just as aristocratic as the rest and his blood just as pure – perhaps purer- than most. But he stood out, he did not maliciously abuse the other students, he thought it beneath him. He did not even believe in all that blood supremacy crap anyway, it was blood no matter where it came from right? So he went through his years at Hogwarts being the guy in the background, not on the same level of arrogance as Malfoy or as handsomely indifferent as Blaise and he certainly would never be able to get out from behind the vast shadows of Crabbe and Goyle.<p>

He was the wild card and he was mysterious. No one was quite sure what he would do next, he liked it that way.

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><p>Daphne Greengrass prides herself on being a Slytherin. With her ice cold beauty and royal elegance she holds herself to the highest standard. She attends the most high profile of balls and parties in the most revered of dresses and with her pretty smile she attracts the attention of all. This is her life, this is what they need from her. Astoria is not a Slytherin, her parents had placed on their expectations on the blonde sister the minute the younger had broken the long lasting family tradition. So she floats on a cloud of superiority and associates with only the crème of society, it's what she has to do.<p>

It doesn't matter that she loves to read. It doesn't matter that she likes to sit outside when it rains just so she can watch the drops hit the ground. It doesn't matter that she can't tear her eyes away from Theo. Daphne doesn't want to be like Pansy, caught up in the idea of perfection. But she will, because she is a Greengrass and it's what she has to do.

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><p>Slytherin House, pureblood house. It turned out, not exclusively. Tracy Davies, half-blood disgrace of her family. Different mother than her siblings it turned out. The consequence of an extra-marital dalliance with a muggle woman whom her father had met in Italy. Keeping to herself , she was accepted by no one, not the Slytherin's who thought her unworthy of their attention, and not the rest of the school who saw her as a snake – albeit a quiet one.<p>

But the quiet snakes are the one to be wary of. The quiet snakes are the ones who lie in the shadows, underestimated and forgotten. So Tracy will wait, she'll sit alone at meals and keep her head down in lessons and when the time is right... she'll strike. Who said she didn't have what it takes to be a Slytherin?

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><p>Where Draco Malfoy failed in Slytherin leadership, Blaise excelled. Though he often seemed in the background, his cool light overshadowed by the obnoxious explosion that was the Malfoy heir, those in the Slytherin house knew he was the one truly in charge. He was aloof. He was cold. He didn't form lasting relationships. The last was a lesson learned at his mother's knee, get what you need from someone and then cut all ties. Besides, why bother getting close to anyone when you know they're going to disappear in a few months anyway?<p>

At least, he tried to distance himself. But when he was five years old his mother introduced him to the eldest Greengrass sister, and despite having already learned to avoid relationships he came to like the little blonde girl who played in the rain. Daphne was the only one he was never able to resist and when he turned 15 he realised he was in love with her. But he saw how she looked at Nott from the corner of her eye and did nothing. He was Blaise, the Slytherin King.

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><p>Theirs was an aristocracy that would not fall. The ambitious led the ambitious and the one with the most ambition led them all. Ambition leads to power you see, and if there is one thing a Slytherin craves it is power.<p>

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><p><strong>Tell me what you think, hope you enjoyed it and leave me a constructive review :)<br>**

**Hannah :)**


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